Journey
by Mind's Odyssey
Summary: Sorry to say, but there's no way I am the Aerith you're talking about. * As if I'm going to believe that. * Did he mean we're fugitives or something? I'm only a normal girl from a normal village, and I don't even know him until moments ago! * I put a finger under her nose, and no breath came out. * His eyes widened in shock; she was... Sephiroth one shot. Rated T just in case. (AU)


**Kingdom Hearts One Shot Series  
03 - Journey  
**

Pairing: Sephiroth x Reader

[Setting: Somewhere in Asia, 500 years ago. In a long forgotten diary...]

I lived in a small ancient village, where life was simple. Well, maybe a little too simple to the extent of being isolated from other areas. It was a plain life, where the people worked in the farmlands, operating shops in the center of the village where population was the most, or just went hunt for woods in the forest surrounding the village. There was nothing much else to be said for such a normal village life.

Even though most people lived in poverty there, they could still carry on with life, facing tough life with endurance. Unfortunately, the village was ruled by a rather diabolical landlord, who demanded a lot of money from villagers monthly. Those who couldn't comply would be banished from there. Therefore, most of the poor people dwelt in the outskirts of the village. And I was one of them.

I was living on your own. My family all died in a fire five years ago, while surprisingly I survived. For a girl of 18 of age, most people said I was quite independent and tough. I also knew how to defend myself, thanks to my father who taught me martial arts. Other than that, I was content of living in solitude. No one lived near my hut anyways. Every day I would hunt around the forest for woods and then sell them to earn some living, for I had no land for farming.

After a day's work, I would reminisce that fateful night when the fire broke out when night came. I was about to suffocate due to inhalation of too much smoke back then, and suddenly I couldn't remember everything happened afterwards. After some time, I regained consciousness, and realized I lost everything in that fire. I decided not to depend on the other villagers to survive, for my family taught you to be strong. But, at times I wondered whether this strength was a pressurizing burden on my shoulders.

One night, I was about to head to bed to sleep. From the strong breezes and lightning flashes outside, I could tell a storm was imminent. Even the moon was blotted out by the shrouding dark clouds. The wind blew against my hut and was causing some noises on the windows and door. For some unknown reasons, a premonition appeared in my heart, plaguing me with unexplainable anxiety. I shivered due to cold, so i thought closing the windows more tightly would do. Just when I was about to get up, a window on my further right was flung opened abruptly. I was startled, but I eventually got up and shut it tightly.

When I was very sure the wind couldn't blew it open, I let out a soft sigh. Just when I was about to turn around and go back, an arm suddenly wrapped around my shoulders, gripping me firmly. Immediately I retaliated, elbowing the assaulter at your back. I was released, but I wasn't planning to let him or her slip away that easily. I readied myself in a fighting pose. There wasn't any source of light besides the random flashes of lightning, and they were blinding my sight and prevented me from locating the enemy. Before I could react, I was pinned onto the wall by another firm grip, and this time I could feel a sword's blade right on my right side of the neck.

I started to panic, and I kicked the assaulter with one blow to the side. The person seemed to evade it, and the blade on my neck was gone. Without further ado, I took the opportunity to escape. Before I could reach the door, something like a hand hit the back of my neck, and I gasped before collapsing to the floor. Seconds before my consciousness left me, from my fallen position, I could see a pair of feet walking towards me. And then, nothing but darkness swallowed me into oblivion…

* * *

… What was shaking me…?

I was swaying slightly, as if I was dangling in mid-air…

And I seemed to be in an upside-down position…

WAKE UP!

My eyes flew open as soon as my subconscious mind yelled at me. I saw the ground moving, and indeed I was draped across my captor's right shoulder, with my head facing the ground. I could see the trail falling behind. I tried to recall what happened, and what came into my confused mind was the battle last night. "Right, I was knocked out…" I thought. I remained like dead without moving a muscle, for I didn't want to alert my captor. I decided to observe my surroundings first.

The scenery around me seemed very unfamiliar, so I guessed I was somewhere out of the village, but I couldn't make sure how far I was away from it. Heck, I didn't even know how long I was out cold! I could feel the sun's heat, so maybe hours. Oh great…

I suppressed a frustrated sigh, and then I saw the captor's silver hair below my face. "How long is this person's hair anyway?" I thought. The ends of the hair almost touched his or her ankles, so it must be _really_ long. Since I couldn't do anything, I managed to grab the ends of the hair and started to make silly ties and curls with it. You could say that was payback, but harmless, what a pity. After I was satisfied, my mind started to formulate an escape plan. I couldn't just attack my captor rashly on the spot; I didn't even have a weapon to begin with. And whoever this person was had a sword with him or her. Disadvantages seemed to like me right now.

The captor's footsteps seemed to decrease in speed, I thought he or she was going to check on you, so I pretended to have lost consciousness. Sure enough, right after I shut your eyes, I felt the captor stopped walking. And then, I was put down at somewhere… Mt back came into contact with a rough surface… a tree. I still pretended to have fainted, and to make it convincing, I relaxed all my muscles and I felt myself sliding down to the side. I contacted with the ground. Ouch. Nevertheless, I didn't even frown, not even a groan came from me. I utilized my ears to replace my eyes. I heard sound of leaves rustling, and then the person seemed to have sat down. And for the next three minutes, no sound came except for the occasional sound of wind roaming within the forest. I cracked an eye open to see what was going on. I saw the captor dozing off under a nearby tree.

I pushed myself up slowly. And now I finally saw the captor's face and appearance. Despite that insanely long hair, the person was a male, judging from his clothing. I was dumbfounded, not only he was male, but his features when he was sleeping. I had imagined the person was some mountain thief with malicious looks and scars on his or her face all along. But now he looked so calm… I shook my head vigorously to snap out of it. I had to make haste and escape, it's now or never. I decided to punish him for capturing me, so I grabbed some ends of his hair again and tied it around a low branch. I snickered mentally and sneaked away quietly.

Even though the back of my neck still hurt, I didn't dare to stop for a moment. I kept running, trying to create as less noise as possible. At times, I looked back while running to make sure he didn't catch up. And suddenly, I tripped over a rock and I fell off a short cliff. The good news was, I was safe, since I landed on something soft that broke my fall; the bad news was… The soft thing I landed on was… a tiger, a hungry one. It growled, as if telling me it was about to rip me into shreds of flesh. "Oh crap," I muttered, and then I started to run away from the tiger like no tomorrow. Never in my life had I encountered a tiger before, not even during my hunting in the forest. Unfortunately, my tip of the right foot hit a large root and I fell down. I found myself unable to move, for I seemed to have twisted my ankle pretty badly. I stared at the approaching tiger with horror all over my pale face. "This is the end," I thought. As if on cue, the tiger roared and pounced. I shut my eyes tightly and waited for getting ripped -

Suddenly, I heard a slash of a sword and the tiger's roar. I opened my eyes only to see the tiger was wounded, though not to the extent of dying. It ran away into the unknown depths of the forest. I let out a breath I was holding back, but to have it sucked back abruptly once again due to a cold feeling right on the left side of my neck. I slowly turned my head a little to see a sword's blade. And then the blade moved, though not leaving my neck more than 3 centimeters. Eventually the man earlier sauntered before me, pointing his ridiculously long blade on my neck. "I got you, again," he said, with a slightly wicked smile on his menacing face. "2 to 0… What bad luck…" I sighed mentally, but I was not going to do this in front of this man. "I'm not going to admit defeat…"

* * *

And _this_ time, my wrists were locked up with metal chains, connecting to another handcuff on his hand. I was dragged to walk behind him. Getting frustrated, I decided to question him, "Hey, you, what is it you want to capture me? And where are you taking me?" "That's none of your business," he merely disregarded my question with an indifferent attitude. I didn't plan to give up just yet, "But I do have the right to know! If you decided not to answer me, I am going to annoy you with this question until you gave me an explanation."

He stopped and turned around to glare at me, I glared back just as venomously, but smirking in my mind. I won this round. He sighed frustratingly and started to walk, replying, "Fine, as you wish. The most wanted group in my town had escaped all thanks to that Cloud and Tifa. And now I am going to capture them all, starting with Aerith Gainsborough." I laughed dryly and said, "Sorry to say, but there's no way I am the Aerith you're talking about." When he heard my response, he laughed darkly (which sent a shiver down my spine by the way) and said, "As if I'm going to believe that, please be reasonable here." I almost jumped out of anger and retorted, "What? You're the unreasonable one! I don't even know who this Aerith Gainsborough is!"

The man decided that was the last straw and he spun around, brandishing his sword and pointed it at me again, this time right before my nose. "Shut up or I'll strike you down right here, right now," he growled, glaring at me with menace. I steeled myself up and retorted, "If you wanted to kill me, you could've just done it back then, so you wouldn't kill me, right?" He was about to say something, but swallowed it back to his throat reluctantly. With a last glare, he turned around and continued the journey to god-knows-where. He jerked the chains to pull my wrists. I winced but bit back a pained moan. My sprained ankle was causing me to limp, and now he was going to dislocate my wrists by pulling and jerking the chains. "Ugh, the ones above must've been pulling my leg for pure amusement…" I muttered quietly.

After an agonizingly, torturing long walk, night befell the vast forest and the two of us stopped somewhere among the trees to rest for the night. He started a small campfire with some firewood. I sat a bit further away from the flickering flames. After that fire, I had developed a phobia against fire, and tried to avoid getting near it at all costs. I stared at the ground, suddenly my stomach made its shameless feeding request by growling loudly. I realized I hadn't eaten anything since last night, but I wasn't going to voice it, not to this man. "Have some dignity, there's no way I'm going to -" My thoughts were interrupted by a piece of bread tossed right into my chained hands. "Eat up." I looked up to the man opposite to me. He stared back at me, and we engaged in a staring contest. And then he said with a bored tone, "There's no poison in it if you're curious." I blinked twice and looked at the bread. It seemed to smile at me and waved at me happily. Sure I wanted to maintain my dignity, but my stomach was innocent… So I took a bite of the bread and eventually took another.

"I still can't escape right now. Not only I'm not familiar with the surroundings here, I also have no energy and no weapon. What's worse, I'm injured." My thoughts were swimming while I was busy devouring the bread. Taking another bite, I reached a conclusion, "Let's wait and see… Wait for an advantage that is."

* * *

The next day came, and I was trailing behind him as usual. This time, I decided to observe him to find his weakness. After some scrutinizing from the back, I pondered on a discovery: why was his right arm less flexible as his left? Not because of the dominant hand or something, but he seemed to avoid using his right arm, and whenever he did, his movements were somehow restrained by something. Even though the curiosity was begging me to ask, I didn't comply. I didn't feel like asking. And now we were about to cross a river, where rocks were stacked up in a line haphazardly in the middle of the stream. The sound of water lapping reminded me of the small stream back at my home.

_Home?_ As if… with all the living conditions like that… and not to mention that ruthless landlord… I was lost in thought and a sudden slip on the slippery wet rocks jerked me out of it. But I fell into the stream, getting myself all wet. I ignored the cool water dripping off my face and hair and proceeded to push myself up. He stared at me, but after he thought I was okay to walk, he continued the journey.

When evening arrived, the air around the forest was staring to get cold, and that affected me as well. I started from trembling to shivering, as much as I wanted to suppress it. And I felt as if someone tied heavy metal onto my head; it felt so heavy. I thought I was going to pass out anytime soon, but I let out a sigh of relief when he decided to finally stop and camp for the night. Rest was my first priority now, and I admitted; I felt sick. As soon as I settled down, I drifted off to slumber with a blink of an eye.

And when I woke up again, the surrounding was mostly blue and black in color. I took it as the wee hours of the morning. I tried to move, but I felt something surrounded me. And come to think of it, I felt warm. I looked around me; all I saw was a cloak covering me like a blanket. I didn't get to think who covered me with this cloak, because I averted my gaze and saw the silver-haired man sleeping under a tree in a sitting position. His black cloak wasn't on him, but with me.

This time, he was a bit far away from me. I got up, still covering myself with the cloak, and slowly inched closer to him. I took note not to make any noise with the metal chains between us. When he was sleeping, all the menacing features disappeared. His body was strongly built, with his chest exposed a little. And he looked like a normal person, and more… handsome. I felt myself blushing at the thought of it. "Okay, I'm getting nuts. Let's go back to sleep…" I tried to convince myself, and then I returned to my spot and settled down, resuming the slumber.

Hours later, we continued to walk as usual, with him dragging me to walk behind him. Out of the blue, I asked, "Hey, after being with you for so long, I still didn't know your name." He remained silent, so I awkwardly added, "It's nothing, I just wanted to say… thank you." The last two words were mere whispers. He seemed to hesitate a bit, but then he answered, "… Sephiroth." And then, silent settled in again between us. "Sephiroth…" I let his name roll in my tongue a few times to get used to it. "…What a weird name," my thoughts just had to make fun of him.

Judging the shadows of the trees, we reached a mountain trail with steep cliffs around noon. The mountain trail wasn't too narrow and people could walk two by two on it. Just when I was bothering how I should wipe my sweat with my hands chained up like this, three arrows whizzed past my head. I gasped, glancing around me to see if anyone was there, Sephiroth looked around quickly while muttering, "Shoot, we're compromised."

"What?" I blurted out the first word that came into my mind. He didn't say anything, but he ran along the mountain trail pulling and jerking me more violently than usual. I couldn't do anything but run along with him, with clouds of question marks in my head. "Did he mean we're fugitives or something? What the crap? I'm only a normal girl from a normal village, and I don't even know him until moments ago!" I exclaimed mentally. Thankfully we managed to arrive at the end of the dangerous mountain trail. The arrows just seemed to miss us by hair. And now another forest was ahead of us, with a forest clearing in front of it.

When I ran past some trees, my tied up hair got stuck onto a sharp and thin tree branch, and now I couldn't get it off. After sensing he couldn't move on without apparent reason, Sephiroth spun around and saw me in a dilemma. Without thinking, he pulled out his sword and chopped off the tree branch, and breaking the chains around my wrists in the process. But both of us didn't notice that, when I was about to run, Sephiroth suddenly pushed me aside. I fell down and was about to reprimand him why, but I was shocked by what I saw now: He collapsed to the ground, with pain written all over his face. There was an arrow, shot right on his chest!

I quickly got over and pulled him up, but he was quite heavy. And to make matters worse, I could see the enemies readying the arrows on the bows, about to shoot us both. I forced my currently-in-turmoil brain to think of something, but my adrenaline was pumping in you, yelling at me to just run. But I knew I couldn't outrun them, not with him in this state. When I was about to mentally curse, I saw a herd of wild boars near the enemies. I quickly picked up some stones and threw them at them. The boars were agitated by the disruption, and mistaken the bowmen as the target. Fiercely, the wild boars chased them away. And while they were busy running for their lives, I escaped by pulling and dragging an injured Sephiroth, wading deeper into the forest.

I finally found a big cave and made sure it was a safe hiding spot. I let him lie down while I gasped for breath. My chest was heaving up and down heavily. A few seconds later, I got closer to Sephiroth and examine his wounds. "Shoot, it was worse than I thought," I muttered, with my eyes scanning the situation before me. The arrow struck near his heart, and blood wouldn't stop flowing out. Luckily there wasn't poison on the arrow. I knew what to do; I had to find some herbs to carry out first aid. But first I would have to stop his blood, or else he would die of excessive blood loss. I had no choice but to tear off a long strip of the hem of my skirt. And then I pulled the arrow out with difficulty, some drops blood sprinkled onto my hands. I then used the cloth to wrap the injured part tightly. Now I had to leave to find the herbs needed. I stared at him for one more second and then hurried off.

And when I returned at last, I was exhausted. I had some trouble finding the herbs in this forest, and I also upset my old wounds. And now I was limping even worse than before. Nonetheless, I limped over to the still unconscious Sephiroth, and started to mash the herb leaves I collected. And then I tore off some more cloth off my still-too-long skirt. I removed the cloth earlier and assessed the wounds. The blood hadn't stop flowing out yet. I applied the mashed herb leaves onto his wounds. And then I wrapped the wounds with the new cloth again…

10 minutes later, I fell back on my butt and leaned against the stone cave wall. I burned up all my energy and now I was breathing heavily after such adrenaline rush. I then looked at him. The blood seemed to stop, and he was in a more stable condition. And now he was only sleeping soundly. I raised a hand to wipe the sweat on my forehead, and then I finally realized the absence of the metal around my wrists. I didn't remember when I lost it, but now I was in a conflict. "Actually, it _is_ a good time to run now," I mumbled to myself. But somehow, I… didn't feel like it. And I didn't know why exactly.

Suddenly he coughed, and I snapped out of my thoughts. I went over to see and he murmured something in his sleep, "Water… water…" I mentally kicked myself for forgetting such an important necessity of life. This wasn't hard; there was a clean stream just nearby this cave. I fumbled for his leather water container tied to his waist and went to collect some water. And then, I had no choice but to lift his head and feed him water. I pulled the upper part of his body onto my lap and I carefully lifted his head. Directing the opening of the water container to his mouth, I slowly fed him some water. Well, some of the water dripped to the sides. After I was done feeding, I used another leftover cloth to wipe the water off his face. When I wiped the water off the right shoulder, I saw a strange mark on it. Out of sheer curiosity, I pulled the fabric away to get a better view. It was a scar, caused by burning, and it covered an area about the size of my palm.

I frowned upon seeing the scar. The memories flashed back again. Recently, before I was captured, they were trying to give me some kind of message but all were blurry and fragmented. I shut my eyes and began to concentrate, evoking painful memories…

_-Flashback-_

_A younger version of me was screaming for my parents, while the flames just resumed spreading and burning everything into crisps, cracking at every movement. "Mom! Dad! *Cough* Where *cough*… where are you?! *Cough*" The heat was intolerable and the smokes were filling up the room at an alarming speed. Soon I couldn't find the voice to shout anymore, I started to cough so bad and curled up on the floor. "Is this it? Is this the… end?" My eyes were glazed over with despair, losing the last glint of hope. I stared at nothing in particular, but I didn't see anything, instead I saw darkness closing in, welcoming me. I coughed a little bit more, and then I fainted._

_And then… I heard banging… Someone shouted… but who? No, wait. Why was this person shouting? I didn't know this voice… And… what happened… next…?_

_-Flashback Ends-_

I groaned, opening my eyes. I stared at the ground, breathing heavily. Still, I couldn't get it out. I never knew what the memories were about, and I couldn't recall anything happened after I fainted and before I woke up. I only knew someone found me lying near the burnt hut. Later, I just shook my head slightly, dismissing the thought. "Well, I'll just give it a rest. I'm too tired to think of something like this right now." I looked at him, sleeping peacefully as if nothing happened. Right now, I envied him; he could get all the sleep he wanted, and I would have to bear with the sprained ankle, the unrecovered cold I seemed to catch yesterday, and the night watch. "You owe me big time, Sephiroth…" I thought, and then I adjusted my seat to face the entrance of the cave, watching over for the night.

* * *

I only realized I had dozed off for some time when I heard a low groan. I looked up and realized the sun was hanging up high already. I saw him trying to push himself up. I hurried over and said, "Hey, you better stop moving around like that, or else the injury would worsen for all I care." He held a palm at his wounds and bit back a sharp pain sensation. He stared at it, and then at me, he asked, "Why didn't you escape?" I remembered the chains were broken by him a while back. I stuttered, and this surprised me. I then replied, "… I don't know."

And then I recalled seeing the scar on his right shoulder, after fidgeting my fingers awkwardly, I finally found the courage to ask, "Say… When I tend to your wounds, I noticed you had a pretty large scar on your right shoulder… Was it burned?" I averted my gaze to him, and I saw him tensed up a little, even though his face was void of emotions. He didn't utter a word, I tried to carry on the conversation, "You know, I was trapped in a fire accident years ago… I thought I was about to die back there, still I survived. But I lost everything else, it was a bad exchange…" I sighed softly at the end of my sentence.

Sephiroth still remained silent, but his mind was reeling with the old memories, tormenting him…

_-Flashback-_

_I was awakened by the cries and shouts of people. They were screaming about a fire somewhere. I got up from my position under a tree in a forest. I was on a stake-out mission to see if Cloud and his group were anywhere in the vicinity. It took me a few minutes to see the lights from the flames. A hut was on fire and the raging flames swallowed almost everything. I then heard a girl's scream from the burning hut. It pained me somehow, for my family had just died recently. Without much contemplation, I ran towards the raging flames. The door was locked, and the flames still hadn't caused too much damage to it. I kicked the door, but it wouldn't budge. I yelled at whoever was in there to stay put. After a few tries, the door was kicked down. I dashed right into the hut and began searching for the person._

_Some wooden pillars fell off, and one hit my right shoulder, with some flame still on it. I cried out in pain. And then I saw a girl lying on the floor with flames inching near her comatose body. I pulled her up, and carried her out through the back door. I couldn't risk to be seen by anyone here. Thankfully we made it out to the forest clearing nearby. I put the girl down and examined her. The flames made only a small scar on her right arm, but one fact troubled me; she wasn't waking up. I shook her, and even slapped her face softly to wake her up. But she just stayed like that, as if she was dead. "Don't tell me…" I muttered, not wanting to believe a life escaped from my hands. I put a finger under her nose to test, and no breath came out._

_I had to leave, for the sounds of people were getting louder. I stared at the girl behind me, holding back a pained sigh, I ran into the forest, disappearing from there forever…_

_-Flashback Ends-_

_After that, he returned back to his town and lived a life of a hermit, but was occasionally hired by the ruler to track Cloud and company down. "The girl died in your hands… Your job was only to kill, remember that," Sephiroth told himself in his mind._ I was getting impatient when I didn't receive any response from him, so I slapped his arm and said, "Hey, are you listening?" He was suddenly jolted out from his thoughts, he stared at me and replied, annoyed, "No." I sighed and muttered, "Whatever…"

After three days of hiding in the cave, he seemed to be recovering from his injuries. In those three days, I tried to talk to him, but he was indifferent and easily annoyed. I didn't consider myself annoying, but he seemed like he was hiding something, and he was unwilling to divulge it. And what's even stranger, he didn't even chain me up like before. I pondered on this a lot, but I didn't want to ask him. Maybe he would take that privilege back for all I know. Surprisingly, I didn't even escape from him. Something was drawing me to him, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I was about to get up to find some water, when suddenly an arrow zoomed past before me and struck on the stone wall. Both of us were alarmed, and I muttered, "Not again?" "I'm afraid so," Sephiroth replied. He took the initiative and grabbed my hand, saying, "This way!" He led me to the back of the cave, a hole at the end. We got out and started to run from the unknown enemies again. This time, we came to the top of the hills in the forest, where a big plain was. Suddenly he stopped, I could see he was wincing in pain, while holding his wounds. I pried off his hand and said, "You go first, I don't think I'm their target, they won't shoot me."

He put on an unbelievable expression and blurted, "What?" Before I could argue, another arrow flew past, and I yelled, "Run!" He dodged another incoming arrow and ran, with me following behind him. And to my dismay, both of us came to a high cliff, a dead end.

I whipped my head to the back and an arrow came into view. I avoided it, but tripping over a rock in turn. I fell off the cliff, and I let out a scream. At the end was the sea, and I didn't know how to swim. I shut my eyes tightly. After a few seconds, I hit the surface of the water with a deafening splash. _Little did I know, Sephiroth followed me with another dive into the sea._ A man hurried over to a cliff and looked down to the blue sea. He said, "Tifa, I can't see him anymore." "Is he dead? But, Cloud… what about the girl?" asked a woman with long black hair, running to him. "I don't know…"

* * *

About thirty minutes later, Sephiroth managed to swim to a hidden shore far away from the cliff they fell off. She was in his arms, unconscious. Once he got a bit further from the waves crashing on the shore, he lied her down on the sand. He started to panic, the scene he feared so much was replaying again; a girl dying before him. He noticed she wasn't breathing, but the pulse was still there. He decided to perform CPR… After a few attempts, she finally spit out some water, choking. He let out a sigh of relief, and she subconsciously turned her head aside, still choking some water. And he spotted something on her arm: _that_ scar. His eyes widened in shock; she was the girl he "failed" to rescue five years ago.

The sea breeze was strong, and she shivered involuntarily. Sephiroth put his palm on her arm, and he flinched away from the freezing sensation. Hypothermia seemed to occur. "I had to… find some place…" he thought, looking around, and he found a small rock cave. He carried her in and hid behind a big rock to block the sea breeze. He couldn't bear to see her dying, again. Therefore, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close to his chest to provide warmth. He was begging desperately in his mind, "Please wake up… Please wake up…"

* * *

_After a long torturing wait, she slowly opened her eyes at last, he didn't notice it though._ I blushed faintly at the close contact, but then I nuzzled into the warmth. He noticed the movement in his arms and looked down at me. I tried to force a smile and said weakly, "It's… it's okay now, I -" I didn't get to finish my words, because he smashed his lips right onto mine. I tensed up, totally taken aback by his sudden outburst, but I had to admit, it was… pleasant and passionate too, yet a little remorse. Slowly but surely, I relaxed. But I didn't have too much energy to return the kiss. So I played with his hair instead.

He then broke away slowly. Looking at me in the eyes, he told me about the fire, and how I survived and all my questions were answered. I was very shocked to know the truth, and this man before me was my savior five years ago. And this time, I hugged him back, wrapping my arms around his neck and rested my head on his left shoulder. "Sorry," he mumbled, "Sorry for kidnapping you… You were right when you said you weren't Aerith." I whispered in his ear gently, "Shh… It's alright, I should apologize too… But, let's hide somewhere for now to heal our wounds, okay?"

I pulled away, noticing his wounds earlier had some blood seeping out again. He stared at it and then nodded slowly. And then he looked up, with a sincere smile, he asked, "Escape with me then?" I looked at him in the eyes. From this journey, I lost some things, but I earned some as well, for instance… Sephiroth. I returned the smile and replied, "Okay."

**The End**

* * *

**A/N: Here's the third one! Phew, I had a hard time writing about Sephiroth, since all I know about him is all told in "One-Winged Angel" by Nobuo Uematsu. ^^; So I hope he isn't too OOC in this story. OK, 33 more titles to go~ DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR FINAL FANTASY VII. ALL CREDITS GO TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. Until next time then.**


End file.
